Game Boy BIOS & Game Boy Color BIOS Dumping Tool
- Thread starter G4S0
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It would probably require a lot of soldering and hardware to dump it off the chips.
What do you mean?
Well, I would guess that nobody made an easy-to-use tool to dump the BIOS.
Something like version 1.0 of the tool.
There could be a homebrew tool like a Game Boy (Color) BIOS dumper that can dump a BIOS on an Everdrive flash card.
Apparently the BIOS's are protected when they're done.
The GBC was dumped after glitching (?) while the GBA can be dumped into SRAM of a flash cart.
GBC:
https://kemenaran.winosx.com/posts/gameboy-color-boot-rom-dumped/
http://www.fpgb.org/?page_id=17
GBA:
https://mgba.io/2017/06/30/cracking-gba-bios/
https://github.com/mgba-emu/bios-dump
Note: These are just what I found after a quick search and I haven't tested anything.
The GBC was dumped after glitching (?) while the GBA can be dumped into SRAM of a flash cart.
GBC:
https://kemenaran.winosx.com/posts/gameboy-color-boot-rom-dumped/
http://www.fpgb.org/?page_id=17
GBA:
https://mgba.io/2017/06/30/cracking-gba-bios/
https://github.com/mgba-emu/bios-dump
Note: These are just what I found after a quick search and I haven't tested anything.
Judging from the Gameboy pandocs, the BIOS is stored on a ROM built into the gameboy itself which becomes inaccessible after any cartridge is launched. Therefore, it isn't possible to write a homebrew dumper. You'd have to work with soldering and probably glitching the microcontrollers to dump anything
It's not externally accessible either, the only option is clock skipping/power glitching/rgh/whatever you want to call it to skip the instruction that disables the bootrom, THEN it can be dumped by homebrew (that sends it over the serial port, maybe it copies it to SRAM, etc)
So to dump a Game Boy BIOS or a Game Boy Color BIOS, all I have to do is to insert a flash card like EverDrive, boot up a BIOS ROM, and maybe swap cartridges to get a BIOS dump?
No, you have to get a flashcard (or bootleg, etc) with a dumper software, then do nasty hardware tricks at the right time (which can be figured out by... looking at an already dumped/disassembled bootrom to figure out instruction timings; the first time it was done by chance) to skip the instruction that disables the bootrom, then using said dumper software (which may or may not publicly exist) as needed
I kept searching for a Game Boy (Color) BIOS dumper software, which it took so much of my time.
https://image.ibb.co/iqmu3z/G01036814_03_mainboard_front.jpg
https://image.ibb.co/mpTwGK/2014_01_31_T19_04_06_562_Z_gbamp2s_installed.jpg
https://image.ibb.co/iqmu3z/G01036814_03_mainboard_front.jpg
https://image.ibb.co/mpTwGK/2014_01_31_T19_04_06_562_Z_gbamp2s_installed.jpg
Now, I have a whole new reason to dump the GB (+GBC) BIOS.
The first method is to probe (or solder).
The second method is to use a CPU on a test board.
The third method is to de-cap the CPU.
I might be sure about using a flash cartridge and a ROM that dumps the boot ROM.
The key that I figured out is to stop the un-mapping, in order to dump the boot ROM.
The first method is to probe (or solder).
The second method is to use a CPU on a test board.
The third method is to de-cap the CPU.
I might be sure about using a flash cartridge and a ROM that dumps the boot ROM.
The key that I figured out is to stop the un-mapping, in order to dump the boot ROM.
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SylverReZ:
You can make a post on the DS forum about your findings, and they'll do their best to respond. They have a GBAtemp account here, you know.
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Materia_tofu:
oh ye i made a post i did forget they had an account i prob shouldve tagged them in the post+1
tbh -
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BakerMan:
Update on my brother: He's home now, tired and hungry, obviously, but other than that, seems to be doing fine.+2 -
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BakerMan:
Well, from what I've heard from my parents, he had a seizure last night, perhaps an epileptic episode, fucking died, had a near death experience, my dad called the paramedics, they showed up, took him to the hospital, and he woke up covered in tubes, and started complaining.
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